Saturday, September 17, 2011

Joke of the day....

The Arizona Department of Safety Officer pulled over pick-up truck owner Mike Murray for a weapons check because of an NRA bumper sticker.
When the officer approached the vehicle, the man behind the wheel handed the officer his driver's license, insurance card and concealed carry permit.

The officer took all the documents, looked them over and said, "Mr. Murray, I see you have a CCP. Do you have any weapons with you?"

The driver replied, "Yes I do. I have a 357 handgun in a hip holster, a .45 in the glove box and a .22 derringer in my boot."

The officer looked at Mike and asked, "Anything else?"

"Yes. I have a Mossberg 500 12 gauge and an AR-15 in the trunk."

The officer asked if the man was driving to or from a shooting range and the man said he wasn't, so the officer bent over and looked into the driver's face and said "Mr. Murray, you're carrying quite a few guns. May I ask what you are afraid of?"

Mike locked eyes with the officer and calmly answered, "Not a friggin’ thing".

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Was Mike Sparks on to something?








This post was going to be a little look back at the CH-54 and compare its cargo pod to the standardized shipping containers of today and to look at how it could be used to expedite the movement of specific, pre-loaded cargo from the sea base to the shore.

THINK DEFENSE is a big fan of the containers and has written extensively on the movement once they reach shore...but he doesn't cover the movement of these containers by air.

But then it dawned on me.  A madman by the name of Mike Sparks once had an idea to remove the body from the CH-53E and basically add elongated landing gear making a modern day, but more powerful CH-54.

The guy was super anti-Marine Corps and I tossed his idea because of that.

In hindsight, he might have been on to something.  I've spent time on the way back machine trying to find the particular article but gave up since my time for researching this is short.  Suffice it to say that the crazy idea of making a "new" CH-54 based on the more powerful CH-53E (or even better the CH-53K) might have merit.

I don't know how much weight you would lose if you removed the troop cabin from the airframe but I would bet money that it wouldn't be much of an engineering challenge and would allow for the magical 30,000 pound threshold to at least become semi-reachable

So here's to you Mike Sparks...where ever you are.  You're a madman.  You're crazy.  And I believe you were ahead of your time.

Marines take part in new swim qual

I luv how the Marine Corps talks about things being 'rigorous' instead of a damn kick in the nuts.  How its 'challenging' instead of a puke invoking experience.  I've been watching the requirements for the new swim qual and while it may be easier than the previous one for basic qualification I can assure you for a 1st class rating you're going to work your ass off!  Oh and a side note for the anchor...shave off that nasty fuzz over your lip!

29th Commandos finish operations in Helmand province







All photos by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Chandler.  On a different note, please observe the first photo.  I notice that the USMC and now the British military is all the rage about taking these type of photos.  Action pics I can understand but these posed photos give me the creeps.  I get the impression that they're suppose to be used in the newspaper if you're every mortally wounded.  Maybe its just me but I'd love to hear an explanation of why they're suddenly such a "in" way of doing things.

UH-1Y Venom Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction (SPIE) Demo

Pic of the day. 09/15/2011

Out the door

Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team exit a C-17 Globemaster III during an airborne training exercise Sept. 10, 2011, at Fort Bragg, N.C. The yellow cord, called a static line, deploys the paratroopers parachute automatically, which is important since the paratroopers are jumping at only 800 feet above ground level. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod



Question.  At 800 feet is a reserve chute even deploy-able if your main malfunctions?  I know they're jumping Hollywood but still...why wear it if it can't help?

Sea Gripen presentation to the Indian Navy

Many thanks to JJ (not Jack Jack from Ares Blog) for pointing me to Livefist Blog.  Go there for the complete slides.



Wednesday, September 14, 2011

An explanation. SNAFU!'s coverage of Dakota Meyer Medal of Honor winner.

I want to take a second to explain why I haven't been blasting news of Dakota Meyer's soon to be awarded Medal of Honor here on SNAFU!

Understand that I'm extremely proud of the man and am in awe of his actions on that fateful day.

But also understand that while searching for information on him and his award I ran into something that I've rarely run into on Marine Corps websites.

They practically embargoed the news and I got the impression that they wanted tight control over how the news was presented...you either went to an official Marine Corps website or you weren't going to get the news. By the formatting of the stories to the design of the articles that was my sincere impression. I could be wrong but again that was my impression.

With that in mind I decided to let the Marine Corps run with the story and everyone that was truly interested could find it there.

That was about a month ago. Recently the reigns have been loosened and they appear to have reversed themselves and are going all out to publicize the upcoming event.

Right or wrong I was miffed by HQMC's actions on this

Compare it to the 11th MEU's Public Affairs Office handling of their training for an upcoming deployment.  They're practically taking the public along for the ride.  But they appear to be more of the exception rather than the rule.  Information about units down range is hard to come by.  You get the fluff pieces of Marines building roads, schools or bridges but info about combat operations is more than hard to come by....its literally hit or miss.

Enough bitching.  I'm proud of Meyer.  I'm pleased that he's being recognized for his actions  I just wish that HQMC was handling this with a bit more awareness of the need to educate the public of what her Marines are doing.

Space Porn...NASA's new heavy lift rocket.




Tigre beauty shots...





Pic of the day. 9/14/2011

Photo by LCpl Ryan Carpenter

11th MEU begins second sea period since becoming a MAGTF